B188: Bedding Purge

This sounds like a project, but it is frightfully simple. Here is a fuzzy photograph taken a couple years ago of my neighbor, Sunshine. She loved to sit on my daybed and make a nest of the pillows. There are several heavier fabric pillow covers I use to stuff my bed pillows and quilt in each morning. I also am able to store oversized towels in one too. This way by daybreak my bed doubles as a couch with these pillows acting as bolsters and cushions. I also have one set of spare sheets that lays flat under the mattress, ready to use when I wash the current set of sheets.

When I decided bed linens should be a category to purge my pile was larger. I had a big comforter I’d made out of a sleeping bag and fabric I’d bought and sewed into a duvet, a set of ripped black flannel sheets and a blue neck pillow from a past Christmas exchange. Now, those things have been given away, repurposed or tossed.

The comforter went to my son’s place for when he has company. This week I have it back to re-sew the hem. My ex-MIL who was Lebanese used to use a running stitch to sew sheets to quilts or comforters and she called it a mul-haff-ee. With these sheet covers there was no need for a top sheet. Some years ago this was the inspiration, along with the European duvet concept that I was able to use an ugly but warm and inexpensive comforter and beautify it with the fabric I also found on sale. I put a panel down the center that matched the curtains I’d sewed for the room. The room had been my son's back then in Arizona, so it was fitting I give it to him with my purge.

The black flannel sheets with holes were used to create my cloth wipes. I cut these into 8” squares and hemmed the edges using a zigzag stitch. The limp, synthetic neck pillow just needed to be tossed. It lived for 4 years and that is long enough.

I used to think of curtains and drapery as part of this category, but I no longer have extra curtains, drapery or blinds. This might be a category for some, but it isn't one for me right now. I might add window coverings next winter as a sort of batten or insulation, but I don't have anything like that now.

Today’s project was to take two of my goose down pillows and combine them into one case. My method was to use a big plastic barrel for my transfer place. Not bad as I’d expected a bigger mess.

I then put the pillow out in the sun to let solar power zap dust mites and other microscopic life. I put these into a zippered case and I will stitch this shut to avoid an potential feather storm from accidentally unzipping the case. I may wait a night or so as I have a third limp feather pillow that might fit in this case. I need to give it the sleep test.

Don't let any retail marketer tell you need a whole closet just for linens or that you need more than one change of sheets per bed. It isn't true. This is ever the struggle of needs versus desires (especially the corporate induced desires).